Obama Will Stick with Bush Moon Plan

The fiscal 2010 NASA budget outline to be released by the Obama Administration Feb. 26 adds almost $700 million to the out-year figure proposed in the fiscal 2009 budget request submitted by former President Bush, and sticks with the goal of returning humans to the moon by 2020.

The $18.7 billion that Obama will request for NASA - up from $18.026 billion for fiscal 2010 in the last Bush budget request - does not include the $1 billion NASA will receive in the $787 billion stimulus package that President Barack Obama signed Feb. 16.

Aviation Week has learned that in addition to the human-lunar return, Obama wants to continue robotic exploration with probes to Mars and other Solar System destinations, as well as a space telescope to probe deeper into the universe.

He will request increases in Earth Science, in keeping with his call Feb. 24 for action on global warming. And he will ask for additional funds for the NextGen satellite-based air traffic control modernization effort within NASA's aeronautics request.

In addition to those newly requested funds, under the stimulus package the space agency will receive $400 million for back-to-the-moon exploration work; $400 million for science directed at climate-change space missions and the supercomputing capability needed for climate modeling; $150 million for aeronautics, including NextGen, and $50 million for repairs to hurricane damage suffered in 2008.

Photo: NASA